Have you seen brainwashing methods that often appear and are not easily detected?

Have you seen brainwashing methods that often appear and are not easily detected?

2019-01-18

Significantly altering one stream of thought and replacing it with a completely different thought process under the social influence is called brainwashing.

(image: wikihow)

How do we get brainwashed?

Persuasive nature.

All Ponzi schemes are really persuasive. They will show you unrealistic dreams. They will collate all the money and vanish into thin air.

You should be really cautious while investing in such schemes. In India, there is CRISIL. Make sure they are not offering returns much higher than the market rates.

Brainwashing templates

Advertisements are very efficient in brainwashing. They will bring in a beautiful model. That model will be talking nicely to her grandmother and reminiscing about the good old times. Then, the grandmother wants to eat something traditional. But alas, that food isn't available to her. The model gives her a pack of biscuits which reflects the tradition. Congratulations, you have been brainwashed to think that the biscuits are at par with traditional eateries.

Thinking that no matter how good your bike is, it is a piece of scrap without a good engine oil. You have been brainwashed.

Defining the quality of two wheelers depending upon how beautiful the people on adverts are. Congratulations, you have been brainwashed.

The life gurus with thousands of new books in the background, renting a Ferrari for one day and making a YouTube video out of it and sharing their mantras to get rich in 15 seconds. You go to the youtube’s website and purchase his leadership packs. You are just financing his Ferrari rental. Congratulations, you have been brainwashed.

People making conspiracy videos and minting huge chunks of money preying upon the fragile unreasonable minds of people. They create insecurities and make money.

Blue whale challenge: It is one of the most recent examples of how to trap vulnerable people in tricking that a challenge will be adventurous and end up taking their life. All the 50 tasks in this so called death calling game are designed to brainwash you that the things you are doing are adventurous.

No wonder the game was designed by a sinful psychologist.

New things appear every day in the newspaper. It brings up the challenge for parents.

First of all, one should know some of the people behind brainwashing:

Abusive parents and relatives.

Many relatives dupe younger teens for sexual gratification are being brainwashed.

Cult leaders.

Hitler was successful in Brainwashing the communitas.

Dictators and monarchy.

“King can do no wrong” was a rule of law. The king rules with an iron hand.

Even political philosopher proclaimed that King is the march of God on earth. Are you still saying that brainwashing is a recent phenomenon?

How not to be brainwashed:

Rationality and observation.

Thinking behind the motive of things being showcased a particular way. Thinking about the alternative stream of thought.

Don't be duped by frequent “us vs them” mentality.

People induce the pill that some people are just different. Blacks vs white in America was one such manifestation.

Untouchability in India was also one of the manifestation of “us vs them”.

Rinsing and cleaning your mind.

Brainwashed people most often have early withdrawal from life. They frequently conform to other opinions and grapevines.

Rinsing the thought process by inducing a pro active lifestyle and talking to a different set of people is recommended in order to stop the process.

Clean your heart, mind and thoughts and don't try to blatantly conform to the pillars of society, influential people. Build your own thought process fed by Rationality and reasoning.

Brainwashing is defined as using methods to systematically changing attitudes or altering beliefs. I'm going to talk about some subtle forms of brainwashing that happens in everyday life. This happens way more than you think, mostly from people close to you. Let me give you some examples.

Brainwash by repetition

Let’s say you are good friends with Person A. Person A repeatedly tells you on several occasions that Domino's Pizza is better than Pizza hut's. Guess what comes to your mind next time you order pizza regardless of whether it is true or not. This is called programming your subconscious mind by repetition. This is how advertisements work. Brainwashing at its finest.

Brainwash by planting a seed

You are good friends with person A and Person B. Person A doesn't like your friendship with person B and wants to break it up. Person A informs you that Person B accidentally revealed that he doesn't really want to spend time with you but because you are a real nice guy, he is putting up with you. Since there is also a compliment in the statement, you don't really take offense to this right away. Person A then asks you to keep this in confidence and asks you to just observe and verify for yourself. Next time you are with Person B, you start noticing things that make you believe that Person B really doesn't want to be with you. This is because your subconscious mind has already made up its mind and is looking to create any signs to confirm it. You may have seen these kinds of manipulations in movies many times. The unfortunate part is that this comes from people we trust. This is called planting a seed and letting it grow.

Brainwash by choice

Instead of asking what you like to do, Person A offers a few choices all of which leads to his liking. It may seem like you get to pick, but ultimately you are picking his choice. The principle of choice is also used in marketing. The choices are manipulated to make you pick the product they want. This is known as anchoring.

Brainwash by earning trust

Person A earns your trust by being really honest with you and helping you at times of need. You feel Person A is your best friend, but you don't know that Person A has ulterior motives. once he has earned your trust, he starts manipulating you for his needs. He might behave like a well-wisher but you are following his agenda for your life.

Brainwash by using religion

This is a controversial topic so I'm not going to illustrate this further to avoid offending anyone. But know that many bad things in this world happen because people have been brainwashed in the name of religion. Chanting slogans also have the same brainwashing effect as mentioned in #1.

How to avoid

Everyone falls for this, one way or another, at some point in their lifetime. It is not possible to completely avoid it because these people are very good at it. But eventually, you observe and experience many that it gets easier to recognize when you see one.